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CHARACTERISE BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF CRIME AND DEVIANCE GIVING EXAMPLES OF EACH EXPLAINING THE USEFULNESS AND LIMITATIONS OF EACH APPROACH There are three main theories of why crime and deviance exists in society There are biological psychological and sociological explanations for this occurrence First of all deviance in the simplest view is essentially statistical defining as deviant anything that varies too widely from the average Becker 1963 p4 A deviant person is one who can be described as violating the written and unwritten laws of his society One of the first biological theories was proposed by Paul Broca a French anthropologist who claimed that there were differences in the skulls of criminals when compared to the mainstream population In the 1870s Cesare Lombroso an Italian criminologist believed that people were born with criminal tendencies These people were regarded as a primitive form of human a genetic throwback and were classed as homo delinquens Bartol 1980 p25 This theory held that while social environment and learning influenced these types of people the main factor was a biological one Giddens 1993 p122 Criminologists decided to look into family trees to find any influence of heredity This search proved nothing as it was impossible to separate inherited from environmental influences William Sheldon in the 1940s was certain that there was a correlation between a persons physique and their inclination toward crime and deviance The three types of physiques were muscular active types - mesomorphs those with thin builds - ectomorphs and those with more flesh were endomorphs He claimed that mesomorphs were more inclined to deviance this may be because of the fact that gang activities usually were displays of athleticism Giddens 1993 p123 This view was criticised because it was believed that if there was a causal effect between physique and deviance then it relationship had nothing to do with heredity Other researchers believed that criminal tendencies in men at least

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